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Ole Women beat the Norse 74-73

Sarah McBroom
November 26, 2001

The St. Olaf women?s basketball team beat Luther College 74-73 at home on Saturday, November 24, winning another close non-conference game to improve their record to 2-1.

The Oles found themselves down in the first half but Cara Battles (Sr. McGregor, Minn.) put together a string of field goals to keep the Oles within range. Coach Buresh commented, "The thing that kept us in it in the first half was that they missed several of their front end bonus chances from the line." The Oles cut down Luther?s lead to one at halftime.

At the beginning of the second half, the Oles quickly went down by several field goals again. St. Olaf stayed tough, however, and worked hard to battle back. Several things kept the Oles in the game at that point. Coach Buresh commented, "We really executed our offense in the second half. We attacked the gaps, penetrated, and got to the line like we needed to." Buresh also attributed the second half momentum change to some impressive shooting by Sara Erickson (Jr. Cambridge, Minn.), who came off the bench to go three for three from three point land.

The Oles, trailing Luther for most of the game, turned on the full-court pressure defense late in the second half to close in on the lead and put themselves in a position to win the game. Still down by two with 31 seconds remaining, St. Olaf ran a play to isolate Liz Mundahl (Jr. Eagan, Minn.) for a final shot. The determined Oles executed the play well, and Mundahl connected for three points to put the Oles up by one. Luther quickly in-bounded the ball with time left on the clock to make a play, but they were only allowed a few hurried shots by the tough Ole defense before the St. Olaf controlled the rebound and time expired.

Leading scorer for the Oles with 12 point was Jill Johnson (So. Butterfield, Minn.), who was also perfect from the free throw line connecting on all eight attempts. Cara Battles and Lori Enlund (So. Bloomington, Ill.) both closely followed with 10 points apiece. Sarah McBroom (So. Mora, Minn.) led in the rebounding category for the Oles with six, while Mundahl added five.

The Oles travel to Hamline University in St. Paul for a 7:30 PM start on Wednesday, November 28, for their first conference contest of the season.

Contact Judy Stromayer at 507-786-3315 or stromaye@stolaf.edu.